Torgau POW Camp

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There are:-1 items tagged Torgau POW Camp available in our Library

These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.

Those known to have been held in
Torgau POW Camp
during the Great War 1914-1918.

Allistone A. B.W.. Lt. Middlesex Regiment
Austin L. J..
Bond R. C.. Col. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Campbell Colin. Lt. Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
Gordon VC.. William Eagleson. Bt.Col. Gordon Highlanders
Harrison Michael. Capt. Royal Irish Regiment
Long H. W.. Mjr. Royal Army Medical Corps
Yate VC.. Charles Allix Lavington. Mjr. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

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Records from Torgau POW Camp other sources.

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263184

Bt.Col. William Eagleson Gordon VC. 1st Btn. Gordon Highlanders

<p>Bt.Col. William Gordon, 1st Gordon Highlanders

Captain W.E. Gordon received the Victoria Cross for most gallantry during the battle of Leeheehoek in the Second Boer War. After 1888, he was an officer in the 1st Gordon Highlanders and served them in many conflicts.
During the First World War, Brevet Colonel William E. Gordon VC was taken prisoner during the Battle of Le Cateau on 26th of August 1914. He and Lt. Col. Neish got in a big argument when they were cut off from the rest of the force and eventually some 90 percent of the regiment surrendered during the "Chances of War", although W.E. Gordon was convinced there was a chance to break through the enemy lines and get back to the British Army. During his capture, he was wounded and interned at Fort Zinna in the German POW camp in Torgau near the river Elbe. His brother, Major A. A. Gordon, a Belgian king’s messenger, reports that he was a fellow prisoner with the Belgian General G. Leman, who defended the city of Liege most gallantly. However, it is reported that General Leman was a prisoner at Blankenburg, which is located some 100 km north of Torgau. In Torgau, Bt. Col. Gordon was questioned for the use of "flat nose" bullets in his revolver. Eventually, he was exchanged for a German aristocrat prisoner in Madagascar in early 1916.
He returned home to his wife and son, who was only 3 years old at the outbreak of the war. Once he set foot on British soil, he filed a report assigning responsibility for the fate of the regiment in August 1914. After Lt. Col. Neish was released from captivity due to illness and brought through Switzerland in 1916, the investigation began and a Court of Inquiry was appointed for the trial. When in 1919 an article was published by Cedric Fraser in the Dundee People's Journal, W.E. Gordon's name was smeared by the company of John Leng & Co., which owned the journal. Fraser had interviewed Corporal Mutch after his return in 1917, but had altered Mutch's words and had put words in his mouth. After W.E. Gordon confronted Corporal Mutch, he sued John Leng & Co. for £5,000 pounds in a libel case alleging slander. What it made more suspicious was that two brothers of Lt. Col. Neish and Corporal Mutch were shareholders of John Leng & Co. Eventually the Court decided in favour for W.E. Gordon, and he received a claim of £500.
W.E. Gordon's son also joined the Gordon Highlanders as a 2nd Lieutenant. Being a sportscar enthusiast, he was killed at the age of 20 during practice in Donington Park on August 19th, 1933 when the car in which he was a passenger overturned.The accident was reported in The Times on August 21st, 1933.
Major A. A. Gordon Society

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237047

Mjr. Charles Allix Lavington Yate VC. 2nd Btn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (d.19th Sep 1914)

Charles Yate was born in Madeley, Shropshire on 14th March 1872, and graduated from the Royal Military College Sandhurst in 1892, thence posted to 2 KOYLI based in Bombay (Mumbai), India.
At the outbreak of WW1 Major Yate was 42 years old, and a company commander in the 2nd Battalion KOYLI, and was amongst the first to land in France. During the retreat from Mons, 2 KOYLI deployed two companies to act as rearguard whilst the remainder of the battalion fell back in good order. They held the line against fierce attacks by the enemy throughout the day until their ammunition was exhausted. By this time, only Major Yate and 19 soldiers remained in action and, no ammunition remaining, he and his men fixed bayonets and charged the enemy. Major Yate V.C. was captured by the Germans and, because of repeated attempts to escape from his captors, was sent to Torgau prison in Lower Saxony.
He broke out of Torgau but was found by factory hands on their way to work who saw through his disguise, and although fluent in German, he was unable to convince them of his identity. Dressed in civilian clothes, Major Yate knew that he would be probably executed as a spy, and before the workers could arrest and subdue him, he cut his own throat and committed suicide rather than be taken.
He is buried in the CWG cemetary, Stahnsdorf, near Potsdam, and his death is marked on the war memorial situated on The Green, Madeley. He left a widow but no children. His V.C. is on display as part of the KOYLI exhibits at Doncaster Museum, South Yorkshire.
Jeff Pearson

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226775

Mjr. H. W. Long Royal Army Medical Corps

Major Long was a prisoner in Torgau, Saxony POW Camp.

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226755

Capt. Michael Harrison Royal Irish Regiment

Captain Michael Harrison was a prisoner in Torgau, Burg, Strohen and Magdeburg POW Camps. He was a dedicated escapee making several bids for freedom, finally succeeding when he reached Holland.

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226727

Lt. Colin Campbell Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders